"Mounted But Not
Mounted"The Confusing Terminology of ArtilleryBy James Morgan

The terminology of 19th-century
artillery can be very confusing. As in most bureaucracies, there were both official and
unofficial terms for everything. many of which were contradictory or had multiple meanings
and frequently were misused even by artillerymen. This unintentional misuse continues
today in reenacting and, indeed, may have become so pervasive as to render pointless any
attempt at correcting it.
Nevertheless, the author offers the following
glossary in the hope that it will help to clarify proper Civil War terminology for
reenactors. even including those unfortunate souls who are not artillerymen. The glossary
is not meant to be an exhaustive dictionary of artillery terms, but merely to offer
working definitions of those organizational and functional terms which are most commonly
(mis)used.
Unless otherwise specified, the information is
based on Federal practice as this most closely approximates the pre-war usages from which
the confusion comes. Generally, however, it applies to the Confederate service as well.
The United States army artillery in April,
1861, consisted of four regiments of twelve companies each. A fifth regiment was hastily
organized in May, making a total of 60 regular batteries around which the Union artillery
was built. Those southern artillery who left the "Old Army" naturally took their
expertise with them so, in that sense, the Confederate artillery also was built around the
regular U.S. artillery establishment.
Unlike an infantry regiment which was the basic
fighting unit of that branch of the service, an artillery regiment almost never - it
probably is safe to say never - operated as a whole, the batteries being scattered about
with little apparent concern for proper command structure, logistics, firepower or other
matters. Both the Union and Confederate services improved considerably in this regard as
the war progressed, through in different ways.
In any case, the primary organizational unit,
blue or gray, was the battery, with the Federals maintaining a 6-gun standard (until
General Grant ordered a reduction to four guns per unit in May, 1864) and the Confederate
using a 4-gun standard throughout the war.

GLOSSARY OF TERMS

COMPANY:Official term for the component units of an artillery regiment; changed to
"Battery" by special War Department order in July, 1866.

BATTERY:
Unofficial but commonly accepted term for an artillery company. The word comes from the
French verb "a battre" meaning "to beat or batter" and orginated in
artillery's earliest days when huge stone or iron balls were used literally to batter down
castle walls.
Curiously, "battery" was the official
term for the units of the 5th U.S. Artillery from that regiment's creation in
1861. The 1866 order mentioned above merely brought the older regiments into line with
this common usage. "Battery"also can be used to identify any group of artillery
pieces, of whatever type, number, or size, operating together.

BATTALION:
Confederate artillery organization usually consisting of three to five batteries, which
may or may not have been from the same state, grouped together into a kind of
super-battery for greater firepower. Though the Federals also grouped batteries, they did
not use them as the Confederates used their "battalions." Thus, there was no
true battalion structure in the Union artillery.
The artillery as a whole was divided into two
groups by function: FOOT artillery and FIELD artillery. Any battery might be assigned to
either group.

FOOT ARTILLERY:
Official but seldom used term for what commonly was called "Heavy" artillery.
Foot batteries generally manned coastal or river fortifications mounting large, immobile
guns like Rodmans or the larger Parrotts. During the war, many Union "heavies"
served in the defenses of Washington .
Some foot batteries were equipped with
medium-sized pieces known as "siege" guns; 30-pdr Parrotts, for example. These
were mounted on heavy, but relatively mobile, siege carriages which allowed them to follow
in the wake of the army and be emplaced in temporary positions whenever the troops were
likely to remain in one place for a while.
The expression, "foot artillery",
also has been used colloquially to mean artillerymen armed and serving as infantry.

FIELD ARTILLERY:
Official term for those batteries assigned to operate in the field with either infantry or
cavalry; commonly, but incorrectly, called "Light" artillery. Standard field
pieces included the Model 1841 6 and 12-pdrs, 10-pdr Parrot Rifles, 3-in Ordnance (not
Ordinance) Rifles, and the "Model 1857 light 12-pdr gun-howitzer" or
"Napoleon".
Early on, the Union artillery eased its
logistics burden by eliminating the older pieces almost entirely and relying on the rifled
guns and Napoleons. By war's end, the Parrotts were themselves being phased out in favor
of the lighter, safer, and more accurate Ordnance Rifles. The Confederates, of course,
were forced to use whatever they could get, so that even the obsolete little 6-pdrs
remained in the Southern inventory.
The Field Artillery was itself subdivided into
two functional groups called MOUNTED and HORSE artillery. Again, a given unit could be
assigned to either.

MOUNTED
ARTILLERY: Official and extremely confusing term for those field batteries assigned
to operate with infantry. It was and is confusing because "Mounted" artillery
was NOT mounted. The drivers, of course, rode and the rest of the men occasionally would
"mount" the limbers whenever speed was required. But generally, like the
infantrymen with whom they worked, the "mounted" artillerymen walked. This
sometimes results in the added confusion of having them referred to as "foot"
artillery.
This somewhat strange usage originated with the
structure of the artillery as of 1838. Before that date, the men of an artillery company
were divided into distinct groups of drivers and cannoneers. These men wore different
uniforms, received different rates of pay, and were not cross-trained in each other's
duties. Drivers, moreover, doubled as cavalry and were considered "mounted"
troops, while cannoneers doubled as infantry and were considered "foot"
soldiers.
In 1838, however, these distinctions were
eliminated. No longer was there a separate class of drivers who rode while the cannoneers
walked. Henceforth, the men were cross trained and each would ride whenever assigned to be
a driver. Thus, all of the men occasionally were "mounted." This branch of the
artillery kept the "Mounted" designation simply to distinguish itself from the
"Foot" artillery. Less frequently, but more accurately, the term
'Harnessed" artillery also was used to identify the "Mounted" artillerymen.

HORSE ARTILLERY:
Official term for those field batteries assigned to work with cavalry. In order to keep up
with the troopers, each horse artilleryman rode his own horse, a practice devised by
Frederick the Great in the mid-18th century and formally adopted by the U.S. Army shortly
before the Mexican War. Thus, the "horse" artillery was mounted and the
"mounted" artillery was not, leading to frequent but understandable confusion of
the terms. Today, when someone refers to "mounted" artillery, it is a safe bet
that he means "horse" artillery.
In the Army of the Potomac, for example, the
number of horse artillery batteries (often called simply "horse batteries")
varied during the war but never exceeded twelve. These were organized into formal
"Horse Artillery Brigades", similar in some ways to the Confederate
"battalions," and assigned to the cavalry as needed. Except for short periods of
service by the 6th New York Independent Battery and the 9th Michigan
Battery, the Horse Artillery Brigades consisted exclusively of regulars. All other field
batteries were "mounted" artillery.
A further distinction between horse batteries
and their mounted counterparts was in the use of sidearms. As a general rule, mounted
artillerymen carried neither pistol nor saber, while horse artillerymen almost always
carried revolvers and frequently, sabers as well (though, of course, they did not wear the
sabers while working their guns). Moreover, horse artillerymen often were cross-trained as
cavalry (many of them, in fact, being transfers from the cavalry) and those men not
actually serving the guns might be out on the flanks as battery supports to free up the
troopers for other duties.
At reenactments, the author often has heard
people, including artillerymen, on seeing a horse-drawn gun go by, comment about the
"horse-artillery." The reader should take care not to confuse "horse"
artillery with "horse-drawn" artillery. The terms are unrelated. Naturally, ALL
artillery was horse-drawn (or, in a few cases, mule or ox-drawn) there being no other way
to move the pieces around when necessary. Only those batteries so designated, however were
"Horse Artillery."

LIGHT ARTILLERY:
In artillery, "light" is NOT the opposite of "heavy".
"Foot" equals "Heavy" but "Field" does not equal
"Light", even though "light artillery" is almost universally used as a
synonym for "field artillery." Historically and technically, the term is more
limited and means only "horse artillery."
Numerous Union and Confederate batteries had
the word "Light" in their names. But unless they were formally assigned to and
regularly operated with cavalry, each cannoneer being individually mounted, they were not
light batteries regardless of that they called themselves.
"Light", in this context, has nothing
to do with the size or weight of the guns used, but refers only to speed. With the
cannoneers individually mounted, a battery could travel much faster - was, so to speak,
lighter on its feet - than when the men had to walk or hang precariously from a limber. In
short, "light" artillery is "horse" artillery.
In the Federal service, light batteries, it is
true, were usually equipped with the relatively lightweight (800 lbs) Ordnance Rifles to
make it easier for them to keep up with the cavalry (for the same reason their limber
chests did not carry as many rounds as the chests of a mounted Ordnance Rifle battery).
Several light batteries, however, were armed with the much heavier (1200 lbs) Napoleons.
For these units, speed and mobility were achieved through the use of 8-horse, rather than
the normal 6-horse, teams. Mounted Napoleon batteries naturally used the standard-sized
team.

FLYING ARTILLERY:
Occasionally used during the Civil War, this unofficial and rather romantic term was
popularized during the Mexican War and also means "light" or "horse"
artillery. It is a reference to the comparatively high maneuvering speeds of these
batteries and was used admiringly, much as we might comment on the speed of a runner by
saying, "He can really fly!". Like the term "light," however, it
sometimes is misapplied to field artillery in general.

CONSOLIDATED
BATTERIES: From time to time, because of the loss of men or guns, two batteries
would be merged. This happened with some frequency but usually was a temporary arrangement
as, for example, with batteries H & I of the 1st U.S. and C & E of the
4th which were consolidated for periods of several months. An unusual triple
consolidation occurred when C F & K of the 3rd U.S. were merged for the
war's final year. Sometimes, as with consolidated B & L of the 2nd U.S. the
merger occurred early and lasted the entire war.
Historians sometimes will mistake a
consolidated battery for two separate units, thereby overestimating the number of guns and
the firepower of a given force.
Artillery terminology, understood in its
historical context, is not as senseless as it first appears. Nor should it be a mystery to
the reenactor who ought to be familiar with the proper military terminology of the time.
It must be admitted that the obscure origins
and contemporary misuse of terms such as "light" and "mounted" will
likely continue to cause confusion in our own day, especially since the incorrect usages
tend to be more logical than the correct ones. Still, it is to be hoped that the
information presented herein will lessen this confusion and, perhaps, contribute to more
accurate impressions.

Bibliography:William Berkhimer, "Historical Sketch of the Organization, Administration,
Materiel and Tactics of the Artillery, United States Army," Thomas McGill Publishing
Co., Washington DC, 1884.
Rodenbough and Haskin, "The Army of the United States," Maynard, Merrill &
Co., New York, 1896.
Henry J. Hunt and James M. Robertson. Individual letters written to the "Journal of
the Military Service Institute of the United States," Volume VI, Number XXII,
September, 1885.

About the Author: Jim Morgan has been involved in Civil
War living history since 1980 when he spent on summer as a seasonal ranger with the
National Park Service at Gulf Islands National Seashore in Pensacola, Fla. His
primary interests are artillery and Civil War music. He has reenacted both Union and
Confederate artillery and infantry over the years. Jim has written several articles for the
reenactor's publication, "Camp chase Gazette," and has produced two tapes of
Civil War music titled "Just Before the Battle" and "60's Music."
He holds master's degrees in Political Science and Library Science and currently
works in Washington, DC, as Acquisitions Librarian at the U.S. Information Agency.
He lives in Lovettsville, Va, and serves on the board of the Loudoun County Civil War
Round Table.This article originally appeared in the Camp Chase Gazette,
1990, and is reproduced here with the permission of the author.